What’s up with wild rice?

First off, it isn’t rice at all. It’s actually the seed of a grass that grows in lakes and river beds, mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The way it is harvested hasn’t changed for centuries. One or two people row a canoe, and they use two wooden paddles: one to bend the grass over the canoe, the second to knock the kernels into the canoe. The greatest thing is that half the kernels fall back into the river to become next year’s crop.

I would love to be able to see this in person. Anybody out there from Minnesota and want to bring me to a wild rice harvest? For now, we’ll be making this into soup soon, look out for it.